Saturday we got up early and travelled to San Gimignano. Its an old Medieval style city with a great view of the Tuscan countryside. It was known for its towers, of which its once had 72. Only 14 have survived, but the tallest of them is 54 meters tall. The skyline of the city looks like skyscrapers of a modern city, which is incredible when you consider the time period they were built it.
Siena was pretty incredible. The main piazza, Il Campo, is named the 3rd most beautiful piazza in the world. It is also where the famous horse race takes place. Youtube "Palio di Siena" sometime when you get a chance. Its a crazy race around the piazza where the jockeys have no saddles, they go opposite the normal direction, they have whips, but they can only use them on other jockeys and not the horses, and its just 3 laps long. People cram into the piazza in the center to watch, and the celebration goes on for months afterward. I will hopefully have the opportunity to go to the race later on (July 2 I believe), and im really looking forward to that.
On Sunday, we attended a church in Florence, and the service was half in Italian, half in English. It was good to be able to interact with other Christians in another language and praise God together. We sang songs in both english and italian, which was really cool. Its a little harder to follow sheet music when you have to follow notes and words that you dont know or can barely pronounce, but it was fun and uplifting. They also used wine instead of grape juice. I'll be honest, it tasted horrible. So, just so you other 'Church of Christers' know, we aren't missing out on anything during communion. In fact, I feel like we are fortunate.
Later on Sunday, I went to the open market in Le Begnese and I had an INCREDIBLE Nutella filled crepe. And then we went to the Bible School in Scandicci run by Harding people and Avanti Italia, and we had a good ole' American cookout with hot dogs and hamburgers. It was great.
This coming week is called 'Mission Impossible' week, which is packed full of activities and things to do. So it will probably be a little crazy, but hopefully I'll find some time to give an update somewhere in there.
Ciao!
Taylor
I would recognize those toes in the picture anywhere. I guess you can see God's hand everywhere around you and so much history that we only read about or hear someone talk about. Off to Baltimore for a workshop for work. Be back Thursday.
ReplyDeleteBy the way this is Dad not Mom. Just using her computer.
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